2018 Elise 220 Sprint
Discussion
It's been 10 years since I sold my S2 111S and ever since I regretted it. House moving and life got in the way since, but having worked hard i'm finally back in an Elise.
I'm 6'4", so not ideal, but I love them too much. Such a visceral experience and nothing else drives like them.
Having watched the classifieds for the past ten years dreaming and now being fortunate enough to seriously look I found this beauty. I've never seen a Sprint of this model come up for sale and only a handful were made.
These were very expensive new, lashings of carbon fibre including the seats, bootlid, roll hoop and front access panel. This was dealer specced and has titanium exhaust, full alcantara package, cruise control (!), lithium battery and a signature orange paint job.
Dealer pictures:
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And finally home after a long two week wait:
The S2000 has been amazing, but it's up for sale now. Can't wait for the decent weather!
I'm 6'4", so not ideal, but I love them too much. Such a visceral experience and nothing else drives like them.
Having watched the classifieds for the past ten years dreaming and now being fortunate enough to seriously look I found this beauty. I've never seen a Sprint of this model come up for sale and only a handful were made.
These were very expensive new, lashings of carbon fibre including the seats, bootlid, roll hoop and front access panel. This was dealer specced and has titanium exhaust, full alcantara package, cruise control (!), lithium battery and a signature orange paint job.
Dealer pictures:
[url]And finally home after a long two week wait:
The S2000 has been amazing, but it's up for sale now. Can't wait for the decent weather!
I feel like I'm in a similar situation to you, sold my 111S last year and massively regret it, my young family had to come first though.
Congratulations on the purchase though. the S3's are cracking looking cars, especially in that colour! I hope to do the same as you but a few years off yet!
Congratulations on the purchase though. the S3's are cracking looking cars, especially in that colour! I hope to do the same as you but a few years off yet!
Congrats, haven't seen a Sprint in that colour before - looks marvellous. 
I recently took the step into an Elise as well (Sport 220) and am thinking about a light weight battery upgrade.
Given the Sprint has a li-ion battery ex works, would you mind posting a picture of how that battery solution is implemented by Lotus for cars that come with such a battery? Would be interesting to see which battery they went with.
TIA & enjoy the first drive
I recently took the step into an Elise as well (Sport 220) and am thinking about a light weight battery upgrade.
Given the Sprint has a li-ion battery ex works, would you mind posting a picture of how that battery solution is implemented by Lotus for cars that come with such a battery? Would be interesting to see which battery they went with.
TIA & enjoy the first drive
Quags said:
Hi, yes of course I'll see if I can take one later on. The only thing I find with the lithium one is I don't think they last long if not on charge, but I'm not sure yet.
Yes, they definitely won't last as long as a standard battery given their smaller capacity. Accordingly, they would always be installed with a battery switch to disconnect the ground wire. The car alarm should drain a li-ion battery in less than 2 weeks so any prolonged times of storage would mean disconnecting the battery.Would expect the car came with a battery switch and a special charger for li-ion?
I have already ordered a battery mounting bracket with an added battery switch and will likely go with a Shorai battery - all in about 400 to 500 quid.
The new battery would be around 2.5 kg all in, the old one is about 11 to 12 kg.
Fanciest aftermarket solution I have seen is the LiteBlox, comes with an app to remotely disconnect the battery and check its charge. Easily around the 800 to 1k mark and a bit excessive IMO.
Given the fact that Kent has been locked down ever since I got the car I've not been able to take her out for proper drives, so I've been titivating and protecting.
I noticed the flimsey battery cover was badly cracked which is hardly surprising given how flimsey it is and is in the boot.
Seeing the price of replacement ones I decided to do a cheap fix as it won't be seen:
Stupidly I didn't take a picture of it finished, but I plastic welded the cracks along with those tabs, so it's probably stronger than the rest now.
Next up I wanted to protect the paint. PPF would be ideal, but I can't afford that for a while having just bought this, so some ceramic coating was the way to go. But first I needed to give the car a wash, then clay bar. Followed by some Gtechniq Crystal serum light and C2 V3 Crystal spray. I needed to remove the front panel to get in the edges and to checkout the carbon fibre.
It came up really well! There's a couple of imperfections in the lacquer on the engine/boot lid which are not fixable by detailing. But there are no swirl marks in the paint and any small chips have been taken care of.
Next up was the speakers. Now it's never going to be amazing sound in there, but I just want to hopefully be able to listen to music/audiobooks on a longer drive. The standard speakers are crap and it only had front ones with spaces in the rear bulkhead for rears. I purchased some Focal 100AC 4" for the front and 130AC 5" for the rear and set to work. Yes, adding new speakers to the rear isn't in line with the lightness philosophy, but then neither am I and I doubt the slight extra weight will be noticed.
Removing the grills on the front standard speakers is a real pain and you have to be careful as you'll need to use them again along with the mounts. Lots of cursing I managed to remove them and in the process .
I could have used foam pockets in the holes to increase the sound quality, but being the impatient powerfully build company director I am, I installed the new speakers. I also removed the focal badging from the focal mesh and plastic welded it to the OEM mesh
I may revisit this at some point.
Excuse the dust and Labrador hair (dam stuff gets everywhere), it has been cleaned!
Next up, the rear speakers which is a lot more involved. The rear bulkhead panel needs removing along with the top seatbelt mount, which can only be got at by removing the passenger seat. Now the seats really are a work of art and incredibly light (and expensive) so I was extremely careful removing this.
I then carefully market out the hole sizes required for cutting, drilled some smaller holes with a hole cutter then cut inside the line with a jigsaw before smoothing the edges to the point I needed. Fitted the speakers and grills.
The Elise comes with the rear speaker wires pre installed so I located these first, then carefully installed the bulk head panel.
All back together. Next day I tended to the alcantara, particularily the steering wheel which had flattened with use. I used a new toothbrush with mild soapy water and slowly worked it in then drying with a clean lint free cloth. Came up brilliantly. Also did the drivers door sill and vacuumed.
Before:
After:
All done, which brings us up to date. God I wanna drive!!
I noticed the flimsey battery cover was badly cracked which is hardly surprising given how flimsey it is and is in the boot.
Seeing the price of replacement ones I decided to do a cheap fix as it won't be seen:
Stupidly I didn't take a picture of it finished, but I plastic welded the cracks along with those tabs, so it's probably stronger than the rest now.
Next up I wanted to protect the paint. PPF would be ideal, but I can't afford that for a while having just bought this, so some ceramic coating was the way to go. But first I needed to give the car a wash, then clay bar. Followed by some Gtechniq Crystal serum light and C2 V3 Crystal spray. I needed to remove the front panel to get in the edges and to checkout the carbon fibre.
It came up really well! There's a couple of imperfections in the lacquer on the engine/boot lid which are not fixable by detailing. But there are no swirl marks in the paint and any small chips have been taken care of.
Next up was the speakers. Now it's never going to be amazing sound in there, but I just want to hopefully be able to listen to music/audiobooks on a longer drive. The standard speakers are crap and it only had front ones with spaces in the rear bulkhead for rears. I purchased some Focal 100AC 4" for the front and 130AC 5" for the rear and set to work. Yes, adding new speakers to the rear isn't in line with the lightness philosophy, but then neither am I and I doubt the slight extra weight will be noticed.
Removing the grills on the front standard speakers is a real pain and you have to be careful as you'll need to use them again along with the mounts. Lots of cursing I managed to remove them and in the process .
I could have used foam pockets in the holes to increase the sound quality, but being the impatient powerfully build company director I am, I installed the new speakers. I also removed the focal badging from the focal mesh and plastic welded it to the OEM mesh
I may revisit this at some point.Excuse the dust and Labrador hair (dam stuff gets everywhere), it has been cleaned!
Next up, the rear speakers which is a lot more involved. The rear bulkhead panel needs removing along with the top seatbelt mount, which can only be got at by removing the passenger seat. Now the seats really are a work of art and incredibly light (and expensive) so I was extremely careful removing this.
I then carefully market out the hole sizes required for cutting, drilled some smaller holes with a hole cutter then cut inside the line with a jigsaw before smoothing the edges to the point I needed. Fitted the speakers and grills.
The Elise comes with the rear speaker wires pre installed so I located these first, then carefully installed the bulk head panel.
All back together. Next day I tended to the alcantara, particularily the steering wheel which had flattened with use. I used a new toothbrush with mild soapy water and slowly worked it in then drying with a clean lint free cloth. Came up brilliantly. Also did the drivers door sill and vacuumed.
Before:
After:
All done, which brings us up to date. God I wanna drive!!
Looks lovely - living near Hethel we get to see all manner of Lotus cars but I've never seen one that looked like that
I've seen them advertised quite cheaply and they look like they work well - I have an E38 with a cracked side skirt and I was thinking I could do a repair on the inside face that would be almost invisible unless you looked hard
Also the undertray is a bit cracked in places so i could probably do a repair to that too
Quags said:
Given the fact that Kent has been locked down ever since I got the car I've not been able to take her out for proper drives, so I've been titivating and protecting.
I noticed the flimsey battery cover was badly cracked which is hardly surprising given how flimsey it is and is in the boot.
Seeing the price of replacement ones I decided to do a cheap fix as it won't be seen:
Stupidly I didn't take a picture of it finished, but I plastic welded the cracks along with those tabs, so it's probably stronger than the rest now.
How did you get on with those hot fix repair things??I noticed the flimsey battery cover was badly cracked which is hardly surprising given how flimsey it is and is in the boot.
Seeing the price of replacement ones I decided to do a cheap fix as it won't be seen:
Stupidly I didn't take a picture of it finished, but I plastic welded the cracks along with those tabs, so it's probably stronger than the rest now.
I've seen them advertised quite cheaply and they look like they work well - I have an E38 with a cracked side skirt and I was thinking I could do a repair on the inside face that would be almost invisible unless you looked hard
Also the undertray is a bit cracked in places so i could probably do a repair to that too
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